And may there be no moaning at the Bard...
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The Poet Laureateship can prove to be something of a ball and chain around the wrist of the artist- the ability to write to order, and some diplomacy, is essential .Philip Larkin gracefully sidestepped the golden handcuffs,writing to Graham Lord:
"A Laureate can fall silent but cannot be dumb from the start.Poetry has to me been always an extremely private thing and I have avoided all its public manifestations.There are several excellent poets of whom none of this is true,and I expect one of them to be appointed.."
Ted Hughes stepped gamely into the breech and one can only imagine her Majesty's relief on hearing that he wrote poems for young children about small animals
Tennyson was lucky to write for a captive audience in a television- free world. He did not have to worry about making his work hip, trendy,or palatable to the masses. Nor, thankfully, did he find it necessary to write in the modern style of tortured haikus which must be decoded before they can convey the slightest meaning.
This anthology is wide-ranging and includes the controversial "Lady of Shallot" as well as the many poems written in mourning for his friend Hallam (see "Break,Break,Break") which apparently cost Tennyson so emotional a wrench that he also fell "silent" for ten years.
The final poem is "Crossing the Bar" which, in accordance with the Laureate's own wishes, is always placed at the very end of any collection of his works.
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Excellent selection - commentary and notes could be fuller
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This strikes me as being a very fair selection of Tennyson's work. However, the editor appears to be rather in awe of Christopher Ricks' definitive edition - so much so that it has reduced him to a brevity that almost verges on silence. So, it is excellent as a taster but, by Aidan Day's own reckoning, I cannot help feel that if you want a real edition, go to Ricks. But there's the problem - I don't seem to be able to find Ricks' edition, and in the meantime, there are cruces and obscurities in this selection that could be illuminated by some simple annotations. I really want Day's scholarship to come to bear - I know that he's got it! So why doesn't he try to beat an easier path into Tennyson for the new reader?
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